Have you ever
found yourself thinking of Jesus in the past tense? As we teach our children the events in the Gospels
do we ever leave them with the impression that Jesus was a great hero who did
marvelous things in the days when men and women dressed like they were in a
Christmas pageant all the time?
After having
pointed his readers to God’s activities on their behalf in the past, Paul then
turns to God’s activities in the present—activities mediated through the work
of Jesus Christ.
It’s important
for us to understand what God in Christ is doing for us right now.
I’ve spent a
lot of time studying the history of spiritual awakenings. It’s exciting stuff. But there’s a danger of beginning to think of
these blessings as belonging to “the good old days.” We begin to mentally limit God, thinking
things were different then, those marvelous experiences couldn’t happen
now.
The God who did
marvelous things in the past is doing marvelous things right now, if only we
had the eyes to see. Paul writes about this in Ephesians 1:7-10.
That vision of
God at work in the now keeps us from becoming dull, boring Christians by ever
reminding us that God isn’t finished with us, that he has something he wants to
do in our lives right now.
We can face
each day with an air of expectancy.
So, what is
Jesus Christ doing for us today?
Jesus Christ Gives Us Freedom—Today
“In him we have redemption through his
blood…”
In Paul’s
thought, sin is spiritual slavery. And
he assumes everyone is born a slave to sin.
As we approach the Christmas season we are sure to have an opportunity
to see a rendition of Dickens’s Christmas
Carol. In one of Scrooge’s
nightmares, his former business partner Jacob Marley appears wearing
chains. He explains to the startled
Scrooge, “I wear the chain I forged in life! I made it link-by-link and yard-by-yard!
I gartered it on of my own free will and by my own free will, I wore it!”
Dickens chained
Marley to censure his greed. Paul would
insist we all wear chains, not just the greedy, not just the adulterous, not
just the liar; all of us wear chains. We
may be respected by society like Hawthorne’s Reverend Dimsdale but hidden out
of sight, we may be bound by our guilt and shame.
The answer to
slavery is freedom, which Paul underscores in that word “redemption.” The word hints of the slave markets. For a
slave to be redeemed was to be emancipated.
For Paul our
redemption is a present reality. We are
free right now.
The agency of
our redemption is the death of Jesus; the idea is implied in the reference to
“blood.” No one could simply walk into a
slave market and say, “I want that slave to be free.” A price had to be paid. Somehow the death of Christ was that price. It was sufficient to guarantee our freedom
from sin’s power.
Jesus Christ Gives Us Forgiveness—Today
“In him we have … the forgiveness of sins,
in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us.”
We cannot be
truly free until we are forgiven. When
we are forgiven nothing should be able to put us into bondage again. As the hymn says, “He breaks the power of
canceled sin, He sets the prisoner free.”
There should be
no more bondage to guilt. The
word Paul uses is literally “trespasses.”
It implies crossing a moral boundary.
We have all taken those false steps, willfully crossed the line. Through Christ we have been pardoned; our
guilt has been dismissed.
There should be
no more bondage to shame. Guilt
reflects our status in the eyes of God; shame reflects our status in our own
eyes. It may either make us cower,
unable to seize any opportunity to serve God or it may make us hide behind a
blustering self-righteousness as we disparately attempt to prove to the
watching world how good we are.
Forgiveness robs shame of its power because to embrace God’s forgiveness
is to acknowledge not only that I am a sinner but also to acknowledge that God
accepts me “just as I am.”
There should be
no more bondage to fear. The Message paraphrase puts it this way:
“Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of
the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by
all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free!”
A recent news
story reports that Pope Francis has indefinitely extended the power of the
parish priest to forgive the sin of abortion.
Formerly this privilege belonged only to a bishop. As a Protestant, I find this notion a little
unfamiliar but I recognize the pope’s desire to show the breadth of God’s grace. Sometimes women have sought abortions to save
their own lives, often so they might continue to care for other children. Sometimes women have sought abortions because
of economic circumstances I cannot full appreciate. And, sometimes women have sought abortions
out of self-centered selfishness.
None of these
women are beyond the great grace of God.
Indeed, none of us are beyond “the riches of God’s grace that he
lavished on us” through Jesus Christ.
Thank God we can know that grace today because we so often need it
today.
Jesus Christ Gives Us Foresight—Today
With all wisdom and understanding, he made
known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he
purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their
fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
Paul introduces
the Ephesians to the notion of God’s great purpose, reminding them that history
is not going in circles. It is moving in
toward a goal. Arthur Ainger wrote, “God
is working out his purpose as year succeeds to year…” Ainger may have been
thinking in terms of the Second Coming; Paul saw God’s purposes being worked
out in the first century.
In some way,
God’s purpose involves the whole of the Cosmos.
That is hinted at in Romans 8:18-22.
God’s redemptive activity impacts the whole universe.
J. B. Lightfoot
says Paul “…implies the entire harmony of the universe, which shall no longer
contain alien and discordant elements, but shall find their centre and bond in
Christ. Sin and death, sorrow and
failure and suffering shall cease.”
This great
future will be brought about because of what Christ has done.
So, God has
opened up the great mystery of history, answered the question, “Where are we
going?” This foresight is summed up in
two words, “wisdom and insight.” By
these we are able to perceive something of what God is doing in the world and
see how we may align ourselves with his plan.
Though we may
not have all the details we may wish, it means we may rest assured that history
is not running out of control. It means
one election cannot derail God’s plan.
It means that even though we don’t know what tomorrow, next month, or
next year may bring; we do know what the end of the calendar will bring.
What does this
mean for us?
Here’s how the
New Living Translation treats these verses: “God has now revealed to us his
mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. And
this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the
authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.”
Elsewhere,
writing to another church in Asia Minor, Paul speaks of God’s intention for
Christ:
Therefore
God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth
and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father.
The words speak
to both the present and the future.
Paul was in
prison because of his faith. Some
Christians had already been imprisoned for their faith; a few had been
executed. Many Christians may have
sensed a greater time of persecution lay ahead.
In fact, Asia Minor would become the focal point of some of the most
intense trials Christians would face.
These words assured believers they would be vindicated. They were not fools for following Christ.
While Paul’s
words envision a time when all will bow to Christ’s rule, they also speak to
his followers today.
They remind
us of the significance we must put on Jesus Christ in our message and teaching.
On the one
hand, this is easy to do. Presenting the
story of Jesus—as the Gospels present it—allows us to talk about one of the
most admired men in all of history. When
we really tell his story, we will tell of one who cared for the lonely, the
broken, the outcasts, the hurting of the world.
We will tell of one who lived and died as no one else ever lived or
died.
At the same
time, if we tell the story of Jesus we will face a challenge.
The early
Christians faced death for saying, “Jesus is Lord.” In some places, in today’s world, Christians
face the same threat. In our own
culture, we may not face death for using those words, but we do face reproof
and scorn. To even suggest the day might
come when “every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord” is to open ourselves to charges of narrow-mindedness and bigotry.
While we may
certainly speak respectfully of the founders of other religions, we cannot
imply there is no difference between Jesus and those leaders. We cannot allow ourselves to forget Jesus’
words John recorded in his Gospel, “I am
the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through
me.” Those words mean we cannot claim all religions are really the
same. If we fail to place Christ as the
centerpiece of our message, we fail to proclaim the gospel.
Of course,
while standing by this truth, we need to be wise in how we present it. Jesus’ claim to be “the way” to the Father
was hard to hear in the first century; it is certainly hard to hear today. Drop the claim into the opening moments of an
evangelistic opportunity and the opportunity will likely be lost. Reflecting on the context of John 14:6, I
think we can make this observation. Jesus
made this claim to his closest associates, to those who knew him. Indeed, Jesus made the claim only after his
disciples had spent time with him, seeing the signs and hearing the words that
would substantiate the claim. Perhaps we
should avoid making the claim during our initial efforts to present the
gospel. Instead, let us focus on
presenting evidence for who Jesus is and how he changes lives; then, should we
cite this claim those hearing it will be more likely weigh its validity.
At the same
time, all who claim to be part of God’s people should submit to his rule today.
This means we
need to examine ourselves. Are we
fitting into God’s program? Have we
enthroned Jesus or are we attempting to dethrone him? In building our society, are we simply
ignoring his lordship? How can I help
all of God’s people—whatever church they may belong to—acknowledge the lordship
of Christ and do his work?
Jesus is
eternally contemporary. He did a great
work for us in the past; he does a great work for us now. He will do a great work for us in the future
